“Droit de seigneur…”. Jude suggested.
“I’ve never heard of that, but if it means a boss thinking he’s got a God-given right to come on to any of his female staff…”
“That’s exactly what it means.”
“Well, I must remember the expression.” Suddenly Connie felt the need to defend herself. “Look, I’m not just saying this to badmouth Martin. It is true.”
“I believe you.”
“Well, good, ‘cause I know women talking about their ex-husbands aren’t always the most reliable witnesses…And when I first suspected what he was doing, I thought I must have got it wrong, must be making things up in my mind, but the more it went on…and on more than one occasion the girls would complain to me, you know, when Martin wasn’t there…”
“You mean he used to do it when you were working together in this salon?”
“Oh yes. As I say, at first I didn’t believe it, made excuses for him. Amazing what you’ll do when you’re in love, isn’t it?”
“Yes,” Jude agreed. She’d done some pretty stupid things in her time too. “But I thought when you two split up, Martin remarried…?”
“To Martina, yes.”
“Well, do you think she’d put up with him coming on to the staff?”
“Martina…how can I put this…?” Connie’s mouth screwed up with the effort of finding the right words. “Martina is a businesswoman. The success of the Martin & Martina chain is all down to her. Martin’s got a lot of surface charm, he’s good front-of-house, but he’s got no commercial sense. All that comes from Martina. I think when she took him on, from her point of view, it was purely as a business venture. I don’t think there was much love involved there.”
Jude grinned knowingly. “Now what was it you said…? ‘Women talking about their ex-husbands aren’t always the most reliable witnesses’?”
“Yes, all right. I’m probably not being fair. I certainly don’t want to be bloody fair to either of them. Maybe there was some wonderful magical moment of connection between the two of them…one day their eyes met across a crowded salon, and in an instant Martin and Martina knew it was the real thing, they were in lurve…Maybe that’s what happened. As you say, I’m probably not the best person to comment on that. From the way it seemed to me, Martina looked at Martin and saw a first-class ticket to a very nice lifestyle, thank you very much. From then on she devoted herself’single-mindedly to getting hold of that ticket.”
“And succeeded.”
“Yes.” Connie sighed. Though some years had passed since then, the defeat and humiliation were still with her. She took a savage sip of her coffee.
“And what about Martin coming on to the juniors in all the salons? Are you saying that Martina doesn’t know about that?”
“She can’t not know about it. She’s not as young and naive as I was. She’s a tough, hard-bitten foreigner.”
“Oh. Where from?”
“I don’t know. Hungary? One of those places like that. Martina’s just a gold-digger.”
“But a hard-working gold-digger.”
“Oh yes. Even I – who have great difficulty saying anything nice about the bloody woman – cannot deny that she’s a hard worker.”
“So, going back to her husband groping the staff – ”
“How charmingly you put it, Jude.”
“You say she must know it goes on…?”
“Must.”
“…but is prepared to turn a blind eye?”
“I guess so.”
“I’m surprised.”
“Why?”
“Well, because it’s quite a risky thing for a man to do these days. There’s so much more legislation about sexual harassment and stuff. And young girls know all about it. Martin could be putting himself at risk of a court case if he goes on behaving like that.”
“Yes.” Connie’s agreement contained a degree of satisfaction.
“What? Are you saying someone has registered a complaint about him?”
“Well, yes and no.”
“Sorry?”
“Look, when Kyra approached me about getting a job here…”
“Yes?”
“She was very upset. She’d just been unceremoniously asked to leave the Worthing Martin & Martina.”
“Because she’d objected to Martin coming on to her?”
“Basically, yes. He’d denied it obviously, and found some other reason to have her sacked. That was always his strength, you see – will always be the strength of men with power who behave like that. “You tell anyone about what I did to you and you’ll lose your job.” And who’s going to believe the word of a teenager against the boss’s? It usually worked for Martin, anyway.”
“And was it just chatting them up, giving them the odd grope…or was he trying to get them to go to bed with him?”
“No. It was just the groping.” Disgust twisted Connie’s face. Jude couldn’t lose the feeling that the hairdresser was somehow play acting…or maybe just enjoying her dramatic revelations. “I think I’d almost feel better about it if it was full sex he was after. Somehow that makes it more acceptable, just good old–fashioned lust. But no, he just liked touching them. And he even used that as a defence when I finally realized what was happening and challenged him about it. “What’s your problem,” he said. “I’m not being unfaithful to you. I don’t go to bed with any of them.” As if that somehow justified his behaviour. Yeugh, from my point of view, it seemed to make it worse.”
“Perhaps that argument works for Martina?”
“Maybe it does. I think she just closes her mind to it, concentrates on the business and the lavish lifestyle it’s brought her.” Connie could not keep the naked envy out of her voice.
For a moment there was silence. Then Jude pressed on. “You said someone was going to register a complaint about him. Are you talking about Kyra?”
“Yes. When she came to see me, she was so upset about what had happened – ”
“Was that why you took her on?”
“One of the reasons, yes. And also because I thought that shouldn’t be allowed to happen to a kid her age. I thought she was in a perfect position to make a complaint against Martin.”
“On the grounds of sexual harassment?”
“Yes.”
“And did Martin know that this was about to happen?”
“Oh yes.” There was no disguising the satisfaction in Connie’s reply.
When she’d heard Kyra’s story, she’d seen the perfect way of getting some kind of revenge on the man who’d humiliated her.
But that wasn’t the dominant thought in Jude’s mind. She now knew of another person for whom Kyra Bartos’s continuing existence had represented a considerable threat.
Nine
Carole had just got back with Gulliver from their walk and was towelling the sand off his paws, when Jude dropped by to share what she’d heard at the salon.
At the end, Carole asked, “Do you think Connie’s likely to have told the police about the threat to Martin…you know, over the sexual harassment charge?”